Fly Over States: Our Honeymoon Roadtrip to the Southwest

When you have two scheduled weddings, you might as well have two scheduled honeymoons! This was the trip of a lifetime. 

Just in case you don't know what I mean about Fly Over States, you should check out the song by Jason Aldean: 

Fly Over States

Now, let me tell you about what it's like to drive through the "fly over states."

We started Wednesday night, July 3rd. After dropping Shea off at "Summer Camp" in south Jersey, we headed southwest. I had the graveyard driving shift, and wouldn't you know it, about an hour after I took over the wheel it started torrential downpouring. Not fun to drive in during the day, let alone at 3:00AM. But, we eventually made it to Nashville, safely, and spent the fourth of July hanging out with the family. We went to a small get together with the people in our fantasy baseball league who we have never met before, and played an epic game of lawn darts. Haaaayyyyyyy. We lost, but it was fun. And Larry made the best ribs I'd ever had.

The next morning, we headed to Dallas. We made a detour to Mississippi to eat some world championship BBQ at a restaurant called Memphis BBQ Co owned by the only woman to win a grand championship: Melissa Cookston. And yes, Memphis BBQ in Mississippi. It's actually only a few miles away. We ordered a massive spread, and Brad had two new experiences: 1) Mississippi and 2) Okra.

After a hearty lunch, we drove west to Dallas through Little Rock. I don't think I had been to Arkansas before, so it was cool to see the landscape. After driving through Dallas, we went to Arlington to see the Texas Rangers play the Houston Astros. Kind of like a subway series. Texas won. Then there was an amazing free fireworks show after the game that lasted forever. Everything's bigger in Texas.

The next day we had a short drive to Austin. We had an amazing lunch at Jack Allen's,

 and burned it off by walking down South Congress Street and in and out of the stores (just as much for the Air Conditioning as for the items for sale). There was a terrific boot store that I enjoyed very much (but didn't purchase anything, because I don't have Cowboy Money).

We had a cocktail at The Driskill which is famous for LBJ (we later drove through Johnson City, his hometown, on our way west) (I had a delicious batini -an invention of The Driskill-, which will make sense in a bit)

and took a brief gander of 6th Ave (think Macdougal Street with a little bit of Nashville honky-tonk). Then we headed to Rainy Street (LOVED THIS!) and Craft Pride, an all Texan craft beer pub where we sampled some of the local brews. Then we grabbed some Thai at the food truck across the street and walked on over to see the bats. Hence the batini. Austin is famous for the bats flying out from under the Congress Street Bridge at dusk. Largest population of bats in an urban environment in America. It was pretty amazing. They just kept coming! Then we headed back to Rainy Street to a beer garden called Bangers and called it a night.

The next morning we continued West to Tuscon.

For lunch, we stopped in a small town called Ozona, Texas. The place was called the Wagon Wheel and it was inside an old gas station. I'm not sure you could find this joint if you weren't A) Local B) A Dedicated Foodie. It was fabulous. We were the only people in there, and it was more like being in some couple's house. It looked like it was set up for a buffet, and we had the brisket and ribs. Fall of the bone good, and the best brisket I'd ever had. Kirby, the pitmaster, was ridiculously nice, and was all excited because a group of boyscouts had come in earlier. I don't think there's a lot of action in Ozona. But that man makes a MEAN BBQ. Highly recommend.

Around dinner time, we stopped in El Paso for a meal at Kiki's famous restaurant, where we each had our first machaca. If I ate Machaca every day, I'd be 700 lbs in a week. It was wayyyy too rich for me, but when in Rome...El Paso is sad. On one side is America, on the other side is Mexico and there's a wall reminiscent of Germany separating the two. You have to go through border control to get out of El Paso. Sad, sad sad.

After El Paso, we drove through Las Cruces, NM and then finally made it to Tuscon where we learned that Arizona doesn't respect Daylight Savings Time, so we were IN Mountain time and ON Pacific time (gained a free hour).

Tuscon looked pretty cool. We went to the Desert Museum which was awesome: we learned about and saw the animals in their natural desert habitat, and we got to see pretty much every species of cacti you could imagine.

Then we went to Saguaro National Park and drove around the desert. The cacti were incredible, and I think we had the park all to ourselves.

Next we drove up to Phoenix. We went to a little pub called Copper Blues where we had my favorite selection of craft beers on the entire trip: Arizona crafts are awesome. Think Hell or High Watermelon type good. Slightly fruity, but not overpowering. There was an orange blossom beer from Papago which was heavenly. It was also 115 degrees in Phoenix, which made it feel as though you were in a sauna. Afterwards, we walked over to Chase Field where we watched our first indoor baseball game: Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers, and again, a heated rivalry. There were a ton of Dodger fans. We speculated that before the D'backs came to town, people must have been Dodger fans.

The next day we drove to the Grand Canyon. This was the most breathtaking aspect of the entire trip. You have to see it in person. There are no words. We walked the Outer Rim Trail and then walked the Kaibib Trail into the Canyon. Gorgeous. Reminded me of being in Verbier. So quiet, and so incredible that something that magnificent exists.

We drove next to the canyon for a while and stopped at a spot where you could see the Colorado River flowing through. After the Grand Canyon, you drive through Native American lands, which is kind of sad as well. For dinner, we went to a little place in Flagstaff, AZ for pizza and beer called Beaver Brewery. Then we headed west to Albuquerque and stayed for the night.

In the morning, we went to Santa Fe. We walked up and down Canyon Rd, which is famous for the art work and had many beautiful sculptures.

Then we went for lunch at a fantastic place called Pasqual's. Brad's carne asada tacos were delectable. My chicken quesadilla was very well done and had an awesome salsa dipping sauce.

Afterwards, we just cruised around Santa Fe, popping in and out of stores. We also saw the mysterious steps at the Loretto Church. No nails, no support.

When we felt like we had seen everything, we headed to a park and listened to a duo play the accordion and a cello and some Mexican music. There was a crazy pigeon lady dancing. There was a huge Mexican band about to go on, but we had dinner reservations at The Shed. The Shed was delicious. Very spicy, but actually managed to keep the flavor as well. We started with some chips and guac. I had a lovely margarita and the red chile enchiladas. I love enchiladas, and these were fantastic, served with posole which I had never had before, but rather enjoyed. It was #5:

5. Enchilada Plate
Two rolled blue corn tortillas filled with cheddar cheese, onion & covered with red chile & baked. Served with pinto beans & posole

Delicious. Brad had the same thing, but with chicken. And then I ate much of his. After, we went to The Marble Brewery Tap Room and hung out for a bit. 

Then, sadly, we were headed east. But we made it cool by following Route 66. The Mother Road, or Main Street America, is actually pretty sad. Mostly run-down towns begging for business with dilapidated houses dotting the landscape. A lot of big signs that have seen better days and signs with no businesses in sight. Look, I cried at the movie Cars. So I'm a bit nostalgic. We stopped in Amarillo for some delicious (if not nutritious) burgers at Blue Sky, and then walked around Cadillac Ranch for a bit, which I thought was pretty cool. 

We drove through Oklahoma City and decided to stop in Bricktown for some grub. 

Very cool section of the city, and lived up to its name. We went to a great place called TapWerks, which had an awesome selection of brews and gave us free Dead Armadillo Pint glasses, which was rather appropriate considering how many deceased armadillos we saw on the side of the road! We then drove past the OK City Bombing Memorial, which was sobering. 

We ended up driving to Tulsa, where we crashed for the night.

We went to Waffle House. Check that off Brad's bucketlist. When you drive by them in the South all the time, it's a given that you'll one day stop there. 

Then we continued through Missouri, starting in Joplin. We stopped at a place called Devil's Elbow, which used to be on the original Route 66, and then was taken off because of the world war and not being able to get army machinery down the windy road. Instead, they built the only section of 4 lane Route 66 nearby. To get to Devil's Elbow you have to go over a scary, rusted, corroded bridge. Then we stopped at the Elbow Inn, a true biker bar with bras on the ceiling and lots of hair and leather. You can still smoke in bars in MO, and this place seemed to take full advantage of that. Unique experience, and really good pulled pork with coleslaw and awesome brisket. 

We went through Springfield and St. Louis, 

re-crossed the Mississippi, and then made it to Indianapolis. We drove past the Colts' Stadium and into SoBro (South Broad Ripple), the hip area by College Ave. We went to the Wellington where we had some Indy brews 

and then drove to Greenfield, a suburb, where we crashed for the night. Our last hotel! Indy is cool because it has different sections of the city that are connected by a greenway bike trail system. Loved that aspect. SoBro was HOPPING! It was insane. Looked pretty cool. And apparently punk and vegan is the way to go. 

After Indy, we cruised on home, stopping at a Steak N Shake in Zanesville, Ohio (known for 2 things: 1) has the only Y bridge in the country, and there are only 2 in the world, the other one is in Hong Kong! and 2) some crazy guy who collected exotic animals let them all loose and then killed himself. Almost all of the animals had to be killed for public safety reasons, which is sad--compounded by the fact that some of them were endangered species like the Bengali Tigers). 

Brad grew a beard:

Then, back in NJ.

What a honeymoon! Loved every minute of it.